By: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack released their full 2023-24 72-game schedule on Wednesday, following the previous release of the home openers for all 32 teams.
The season opens for the Wolf Pack on the road against the Providence Bruins on Friday, October 13th, before they travel the following night over to Springfield to take on the Thunderbirds at the Mass Mutual Center.
The Wolf Pack’s home opener is the following Friday night, October 20th, against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, with the puck drop coming at 7:00 PM. It is the first of six meetings between the two teams in the ’23-’24 season. The first home weekend will end with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms making their first visit to Hart City on Saturday night.
Among the schedule’s other highlights will be the return of the early morning ‘School Day Game’ in Hartford when the Wolf Pack hosts rival Springfield on Wednesday, November 15th, at 11:00 AM.
There will be a Thanksgiving Eve contest coming to Hartford this season. The Wolf Pack will play the P-Bruins at the XL Center on Wednesday, November 22nd, at 7:00 PM in the season’s second meeting with the Bruins.
Returning after a year off their schedule will be the Montreal Canadien’s AHL franchise, the Laval Rocket, who the Pack will meet four times. The first games with the Rocket are on December 8th and 9th at Place Bell. The two will battle again on Friday, February 16th, and March 1st at the XL Center.
The Belleville Senators are on the menu twice this season. They will face the Baby Blueshirts once in November in Hartford and then travel to the CAA Canadian Tire Centre in Belleville in late March for an early Sunday afternoon game following a late Saturday afternoon game in Toronto.
Rockford, Grand Rapids, and Milwaukee were rumored to be on the schedule, but they were not. However, the schedule includes the Cleveland Monsters for the second time in team history.
The Monsters just unveiled a brand-new logo and will skate into Hartford on Wednesday, December 6th. The last time Cleveland appeared in Hartford was back on February 13th, 2009. The Wolf Pack will return the favor with a trip to Cleveland to play at Rocket Mortgage Arena for two games on Friday, January 26th, and Saturday, January 27th. The Pack has not played in Cleveland since November 16th, 2008.
The franchise’s biggest rivals, the Bridgeport Islanders, will be the final game before the holiday break. That game will be on Friday, December 22nd, at 7:00 PM.
Post-Christmas weekend, the Wolf Pack will play a pair of games this season, first going to Springfield and then hosting Bridgeport.
They will take on the Islanders for a Saturday night tilt on New Year’s weekend as the two sides close out the calendar year of 2023 on December 30th at the XL Center at 7:00 PM.
On St. Patrick’s Day Eve, Hartford will host the Utica Comets at 6:00 PM, and then on St. Patrick’s Day itself; they will travel to play the defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears at 5:00 PM.
To their benefit, the Pack only have three three-games-in-three-nights to contend with this upcoming season. One of those three comes at an inopportune time as The Pack will close out the 2023-24 season in reverse order of the season, beginning with one of them against all Atlantic Division teams.
The club will host the Penguins in the regular-season home finale on Friday, April 19th. The final weekend then concludes with visits to Springfield on Saturday, April 20th, and ends in Providence on Sunday, April 21st, at 3:05 PM.
SIGNINGS
The team announced two depth signings, one up front and one on the blue line. Both players come from one of last season’s opponents, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Both players split their season between Grand Rapids and the Toledo Walleye (ECHL).
On defense, Seth Barton, 23, was inked to a one-year deal. He played 36 games with the Griffins and 10 with the Walleye contributing 13 points in the regular season, but equaled that 13 in 13 playoff games with the Griffins. He’s played two seasons with Grand Rapids and four years collegiately at UMASS-Lowell (HE).
Drew Worrad, 26, is a centerman who skated in 47 games with Grand Rapids and 25 in Toledo (ECHL). Worrad registered 25 points, of which just four came while playing with the Griffins in his first and only minor pro season. He played four seasons collegiately for the Western Michigan University Broncos (NCHC). Worrad is 6’2″ and weighs 185 pounds.
Both players will likely start the season with the new Double AA affiliate, the Cincinnati Cyclones.
After one season outside the organization, the Wolf Pack resigned defenseman Zach Berzolla to a one-year deal. Berzolla spent most of last year with the Cyclones, then with the Buffalo Sabres organization with recalls to the Rochester Americans.
The Cyclones also announced the signing of ex-Pack Justin Vaive for next season. He will be their team captain again this coming season.
Ex-Pack Andrew Yogan, who started out last year with HK Poprad (Slovakia-SLEL), then left for EC Graz (Austria-IceHL), has signed for next season with Eisbären Regensburg (Germany DEL-2) for 2023-24. He joins another ex-Pack in goalie Tom McCollum.
Ex-Sound Tiger Kevin Czuczman departs Ilves Tampere (Finland-FEL) for HC Litvinov (Czechia (Czech Republic)-CEL for the 2023-24 season.
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